The Phillies entered Sunday with a five-game lead within the NL East, regardless of dropping 4 of their final 5 video games. The weekend introduced extra dangerous information, particularly concerning their rotation. Saturday night time, information dropped that the Phillies had been putting ace righty Zack Wheeler on the injured listing attributable to a blood clot in his shoulder space. Extra on that in a second.
Sunday, veteran right-hander Aaron Nola returned from a prolonged stint on the injured listing. He’d been out of the rotation since Could 14 attributable to a sprained ankle and a stress response in his rib cage. Nola significantly struggled earlier than damage, as he was 1-7 with a 6.16 ERA and 1.51 WHIP by way of his first 9 begins of the season. We’re speaking a few former All-Star who had completed within the prime 5 of Cy Younger voting twice and got here in eleventh in 2024.
Wheeler’s damage clearly opened up a spot within the rotation so Nola simply slid proper in. Sadly for Nola and the Phillies, his issues do not seem to have been solved.
Issues had been nice by way of two innings, as Nola retired six of the primary seven batters he confronted. He wouldn’t make it out of the third inning, nevertheless. After a strikeout to begin the third, Nola gave up three singles, a stroll after which two doubles earlier than being eliminated. The ultimate harm was six earned runs on seven hits in 2 ⅓ innings. His ERA is now 6.92.
Nola joins Cristopher Sánchez, Ranger Suárez, Jesús Luzardo and Taijuan Walker within the Phillies’ rotation for now, with out Wheeler. There’s an opportunity the Phillies may promote prime prospect Andrew Painter at some point and go together with a six-man rotation. However Wheeler’s absence — nevertheless lengthy it might be — shall be strongly felt, particularly if Nola cannot get again nearer to All-Star type.
Wheeler had been coping with stiffness in his proper shoulder these days after which reported new signs after Friday’s begin. It’s a blood clot close to his throwing shoulder. By way of The Athletic:
Additional testing and analysis shall be carried out in Philadelphia early subsequent week, revealing a extra particular prognosis and timeline. [Head athletic trainer Paul] Buchheit stated he doesn’t consider final week’s shoulder stiffness is said to the blood clot.
As famous, we’ll hear extra within the subsequent few days, however there’s concern proper now that this damage may have an effect on Wheeler’s availability for the remainder of the common season and perhaps the playoffs.
Shedding Wheeler for any size of time is a serious blow for the Phillies and if they do not have him for the postseason, it is exponentially worse. He is a legit, top-shelf ace. He is completed second in Cy Younger voting twice, together with final season, and is 10-5 with a 2.71 ERA this season. He lead the NL with a 0.94 WHIP and leads the majors with 195 strikeouts.
The Phillies do have a full, five-man, rotation with out Wheeler. And, certain, Sánchez has seemed like an ace for a lot of the season, however the most effective a part of that emergence was that the Phillies may have a second ace for his or her playoff rotation.
As such, the Wheeler scenario bears critical monitoring for each potential playoff workforce. Similar with the Nola scenario, too, actually. A superb and wholesome Nola may assist alleviate a few of what the Phillies lose with Wheeler injured, but when Nola retains pitching like he did Sunday and there isn’t any agency return date for Wheeler, the Phillies’ prospects of a deep playoff run take a monster hit.
